The present disclosure relates generally to a turbomachine, and, more particularly, to a face seal assembly having segmented seal rings and a method of assembling the segmented seal rings in the turbomachine.
Turbomachines generally include compressors, turbines, and a rotor, such as, a shaft or a drum, which support turbomachine blades. For example, the turbomachine blades may be arranged in stages along the rotor of the turbomachine. The turbomachine may further include various seals to reduce a leakage flow of a process fluid between various components of the turbomachine. For example, the turbomachine may include a face seal assembly configured to reduce the leakage flow of the process fluid between the shaft (e.g., rotating shaft) and a housing of the turbomachine. Typically, such a face seal assembly includes a stationary ring disposed over the shaft and coupled to the housing for regulating the leakage flow. However, assembling the stationary ring over a large-sized rotor is difficult due to interference between the stationary ring and other rotor components, such as large-sized end couplings, and the like. Other type of a face seal assembly includes a stationary ring formed by assembling two segmented rings as opposed to a continuous 360-degree or non-segmented stationary ring. The face seal assembly having the segmented rings may be easily assembled over the rotor. However, the face seal assembly having the segmented stationary ring produces an axial step along a seal bearing face at an interface between the two segmented rings. Further, the assembled stationary ring may have a substantially low rigidity compared to the continuous 360-degree stationary ring having the same cross-section. Also, the face seal assembly employing the segmented rings is susceptible to deformation, resulting in premature wear of the seal bearing face and performance degradation of the face seal assembly.
Accordingly, there is a need for an enhanced segmented face seal assembly for a turbomachine and an associated method for assembling such a segmented face seal assembly.